Yesterday, the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee “reached a tentative agreement… with the Bush administration that would give telephone carriers legal immunity for any role they played in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program.” The senators who have been reviewing classified documents related to the phone companies’ participation in the program are now saying that they believe the companies “acted in good faith” and “that they should not be punished through civil litigation for their roles.”
When Verizon calls you to upsell you on a higher text message plan, it costs you minutes. Reader Alex got a little ring-a-ling from Verizon this morning:
After he identified himself (“Mike”), I immediately asked the salesperson if this call would count towards my daytime minutes. The representative informed me that, yes, it surely would. Needless to say I wasn’t exactly pleased with this revelation.
Today at 10 a.m., the Senate Commerce Committee will pry through bone and muscle to see if cellphone companies really do have hearts of pure stone. The Committee will question the industry’s most egregious practices: junk fees, illegal contract extensions, and early termination fees. The industry is working overtime to cast itself as the consumer’s best friend, with AT&T recently agreeing to prorate ETFs as part of a desperate attempt to show that federal regulation is unnecessary.
Apropos of, “Verizon Harasses You For 3 Months To Switch To FiOS, Then Never Shows Up To Install It,” if you sign up for FiOS and they don’t show or they have to reschedule, don’t forget to call your current phone provider and get them to change the disconnect date. Otherwise you can find yourself without phone service because they’re still going to use the same disconnect date they have written down.
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“The company said it does not determine the requests’ legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations.” – Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders [Washington Post]
Verizon says the information sharing opt-out notices it sent to customer, that we told you about a month ago, are only so other Verizon companies can market discounted service bundles, and is not for resell to third-party advertisers.
Just a little over a month ago, we alerted Verizon Wireless users to an opportunity to opt-out of Verizion sharing some of your information with unnamed third parties. Specifically, the information is subscriber’s CPNI, which consists of what numbers you call, what numbers call you, and how much the call costs. It is not linked to your name, number, or address.
Here’s the current text-message rate plans for the different cellphone providers. Most providers also offer unlimited text message plans: AT&T: $19.99 a month, Sprint: $20 a month, T-Mobile: $14.99 a month, Verizon: Unlimited messaging isn’t optional feature, but it is part of the America’s Choice Select Plan.
Our favorite moment: when Halleran asks, “If I cancel my account with you guys, will that stop the mailing?”, and the man on the other end just sighs in angry exasperation.
Reader Kevin has a problem with Verizon and the zombie debt collectors they’ve unleashed on the account Verizon said was paid off and closed…
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FCC has rejected Verizon’s requested changes of the new open-platform wireless auction, set for January 2008. Google has pledged to buy some of the available wireless bandwidth in order to launch an open-source Google phone to compete with the carriers. [Reuters]
Starting October 7th, Verizon Wireless users will be able to adjust their plan’s minutes and features without extending their service contract. Previously if you made any sort of change it meant you were locked into a contract with them for another 1-2 years. It’s just Verizon’s way of saying “Thanks!” to the community, by screwing it just a little bit less!
Verizon can charge you $175 if they decide they feel like canceling your cellphone contract before the term is over.
According to Google, Sprint is the suckiest cellphone company. When you query “____ sucks,” filling in the name of different providers, Sprint returns the most results. Here’s how all the providers stacked up:
Verizon announced today that they are ending the often complained about practice of extending contracts when customers request rate plan changes.
According to Google, Verizon is the coolest cellphone company. When you query “____ is cool,” filling in the name of different providers, Verizon is tits. Here’s how many results were returned for each company:
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